The _Consuales Ludi_, or _Consualia_, were festivals at Rome in honour of _Consus_, the god of counsel, whose altar Romulus discovered under the ground. This altar was always covered, except at the festival, when a mule was sacrificed, and games and horse-races exhibited in honour of Neptune. It was during these festivals (says Lempriere) that Romulus carried away the Sabine women, who had assembled to be spectators of the games. They were first instituted by Romulus. Some say, however, that Romulus only regulated and re-instituted them after they had been before established by Evander. During the celebration, which happened about the middle of August, horses, mules, and asses were exempted from all labour, and were led through the streets adorned with garlands and flowers. The _Volturnalia_ was a festival kept in honour of the god Volturnus, on the 26th of August. The _Ambarvalia_ were festivals in honour of Ceres, in order to procure a happy harvest. At these festivals they sacrificed a bull, a sow, and a sheep, which, before the sacrifice, were led in procession thrice around the fields; whence the feast is supposed to have taken its name, _ambio, I go round_, and _arvum, field_. These feasts were of two kinds, _public_ and _private_. The _private_ were solemnized by the masters of families, accompanied by their children and servants, in the villages and farms out of Rome. The _public_ were celebrated in the boundaries of the city, and in which twelve _fratres arvales_ walked at the head of a procession of the citizens, who had lands and vineyards at Rome. These festivals took place at the time the harvest was ripe. The _Vulcanalia_ were festivals in honour of Vulcan, and observed at the latter end of August. The streets of Rome were illuminated, fires kindled every where, and animals thrown into the flames as a sacrifice to the deity. P.T.W. * * * * * THE NOVELIST BEBUT THE AMBITIOUS. "Hear this true story, and see whither you may be conducted by ambition." Hafiz, _the Persian Poet_. In one of the suburbs of Ispahan, under the reign of Abbas the First, there lived a poor, working jeweller. In his neighbourhood he was known by the name of Bebut the Honest. Numberless were the proofs of probity and disinterestedness which had gained for him this title.